Indians 101: Ceremonies in the Arctic Culture Area

Religion manifests itself in many ways: belief, storytelling (mythology), mystical experiences, and ceremonies. In many religious traditions, the emphasis is not on belief, but rather it is on participation in ceremonies. Ceremonies are simply stylized, repetitive acts that take place at a set time and location. They almost always involve the use of symbolic objects, words, and actions. Ceremonies are, of course, a part of culture and therefore reflect cultural values. A short overview of some of the ceremonies of the Native peoples of the North American Arctic Culture Area provides some insights into the traditional cultures of this region.

The Arctic Culture Area includes the Aleutian Islands, most of the Alaska Coast, the Canadian Artic, and parts of Greenland. It is an area which can be described as a “cold” desert. Geographer W. Gillies Ross, in his chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 3: A Continent Comprehended, writes:

“The North American Arctic is usually considered to be the region beyond the northernmost limit of tree growth.”

The area has long, cold winters and short summers. During the summer the tundra becomes boggy and difficult to cross. In his Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Carl Waldman describes the Arctic this way:

“The climate of the Arctic is fierce. Winters are long and bitterly cold, with few hours of sunlight.”

All aboriginal peoples in this cultural area are considered to have been hunting and gathering people. They hunted a variety of sea and land mammals,engaged in fishing, and gathering wild plant foods and fibers.

The native people of the Arctic are usually divided into the Aleut and the Eskimo. The Eskimo refer to themselves as Inuit and the Aleut call them themselves Unangan. All of the languages of this area are classified as Eskimoan. In western Alaska, the Eskimos call themselves Yup’ik, meaning “real people” (from yuk meaning “person” and pik meaning “real”).

With regard to the Yup’ik (Yupiit) Ann Fienup-Riordan, in her book The Living Tradition of Yup’ik Masks, reports:

“The Yupiit traditionally performed six major ceremonies, three of which focused on the creative reformation of the relationship between the human community and the spirit world on which they relied.”

Many of the ceremonies among the Arctic peoples involved the use of masks. In his book Native American Clothing: An Illustrated History, Theodore Brasser writes:

“They ranged from realistic to distorted faces, to totally abstract creations. Miniature versions of the masks danced by the men served the women as finger masks in their pantomime dances.”

Briefly described below are some of the ceremonies of the aboriginal peoples of the Arctic Culture Area.

Inviting-In Feast or Messenger Feast

This Inuit ceremony takes its name from the practice of sending messengers to other communities to attend the feast. The Inviting-In feast features masked dancers who honor spirits and animals other than the seal. The dances and songs are meant to bring about successful harvesting of animals and other resources and to give thanks for past success. In their Dictionary of Native American Mythology, Sam Gill and Irene Sullivan report:

“People who had been helped by spirits during the past year also had masks made to help them perform, through song and dance, the story of the spiritual help they had received and their gratitude for it.”

In their book The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin describe it this way:

“The ceremony involves singing, humorous and ceremonial dances, shamanic trances, honoring of creator beings and game animals, offerings to spirits, mask burning and feasting.”

Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin also report:

“Elaborate masks reveal shamanic spirit helpers and the spirits of various natural resources.”

Among the Yup’ik, it is called agayuyoraq (“way of requesting”) and is the final major winter ceremony and is a major event during the winter season. Ann Fienup-Riordan reports:

“The Messenger Feast was characterized by a mutual hosting, whereby one village would go to another to dance and receive gifts.”

Ann Fienup-Riordan also writes:

“Although the Messenger Feast shared common features with the other ceremonial distributions, it stands out as a particularly elaborate display and distribution of the bounty of the harvest, providing a clear statement of respect to the spirits of the animals. The massive gift-giving that the Messenger Feast entailed served both to redistribute wealth within and between villages and to express and maintain status distinction.”

Among the Inupiat, the Messenger feast involved inviting a group from another area to one’s home. In his book The Native People of Alaska, Steven Langdon reports:

“The visitors were presented gifts when they arrived followed by several days of dances, feasts and games.”

Whale Ceremonialism

Among some of the Inuit groups, whale hunting was important. Over several months there would be events in preparation for the hunt and for thanking the whales for a successful hunt. The primary ceremonial event was held from February through April. Charles Hughes, writing about the Saint Lawrence Island Eskimo in the Handbook of North American Indians, reports:

“This was called the atrruk or chkwack (meaning ‘the sacrifice’), and its details were traditional for each clan with its one or several hunting boats.”

The ceremony was held during the time of the full moon. The boat captain, his wife, and crew would lay out food on several wooden platters, hang the captain’s special hunting gear and his amulets above the food, and then sing and pray throughout the night. In the morning, prior to sunrise, the platters of food would be taken to the shore. The captain and crew would then take the boat out a short distance from the shore where they would offer more prayers and then return to shore to wait for the sunrise. At dawn, the captain would take small pieces of the food and offer them to the air, the sea, and the land while offering prayers for a successful hunt. The crew would then feast, and leftover food distributed to the village.

The ceremony for a successful whale hunt began in the water before towing the whale to shore. The boat would circle the whale four times and thanks were given. Once on shore, a fire would be built in front of the whale’s nose and the captain’s wife would offer water to the whale and throw pieces of the whale into the fire as offerings to the ancestors. The pieces of the whale would be hung over the fire in the captain’s house for five days, during which time there would be no hunting. The meat would then be distributed to clan members and eaten.

Bladder Feast

The Bladder Feast is an annual ceremony among the Inuit held at the winter solstice to honor all of the game animals killed during the previous year. The spirits of the animals—their souls—are located in the bladders. Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin report:

“The souls need conciliating because they have the power to cause hardship by diminishing the food supply.”

In her chapter on Alaska Native Dance in Native American Dance: Ceremonies and Social Traditions, Maria Williams writes:

“The Bladder Feast encompasses a series or cycle of songs that portrays the village’s most recent year, the songs, dances, and masks change to reflect annual successes and failures. This ceremonial is a renewal, deeply tied to subsistence activities.”

During the five-day ceremony, the bladders are inflated, painted, and hung in the community center. At the end of the ceremony, the bladders are deflated and pushed through a hole in the ice so that the souls of the animals can be reborn and allow themselves to be harvested by the villagers.

Among the Bering Sea Yuit this ceremony is held to demonstrate their respect for the seal. The ceremony seeks to ensure that seals will continue to be abundant. The bladders of seals killed during the previous year are inflated and treated as honored guests. Steven Langdon reports:

“The key element in the ritual was the belief that the seal spirit or life force was housed in the bladder. By killing the seal when it was awake, the seal’s spirit would be able to return in another body if the bladder were returned to the seal’s home under the sea.”

For five days the people dance and then they take inflated seal bladders down to the river where they are returned to the sea. Steven Langdon writes:

“Through this ceremony the Yuit demonstrated the mutual dependence of men upon seals and seals upon men for the recreation of life.”

With regard to the Yup’ik, Ann Fienup-Riordan reports:

“The primary function of the Bladder Festival was to reverse the separation of body and soul effected at the time of the seal’s death.”

Ann Fienup-Riordan also reports:

“During the Bladder Festival the men ritually purified themselves with sweat baths and the smoke from wild celery plants. They set routine activities aside and devoted their days to athletic competitions, instruction in and performance of commemorative songs, and presentations of special foods and gifts.”

Masquerade Festival (Kelek)

Among the Alaska Inuit, the Kelek Festival is held after the Bladder Feast. This ceremony involves singing songs to the game animals and masked dances directed by a shaman. Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin report:

“Powerful masks representing spirits of game animals and the shaman’s spirit helpers are created especially for the dramatic performance. The shaman directs the construction of the masks, through which the spirits are revealed, drawing on shamanic visions.”

Feast for the Dead

Among the Alaska Inuit and Aleut, this is a public memorial feast in which the spirits of the human dead are invited into the community. Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin report:

“It was believed that souls entered the bodies of namesakes and through these living persons received offerings.”

At intervals of four to ten years, a more elaborate feast would be held to free the souls of the dead from the earth forever. Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin report:

“Guests came from surrounding villages to a feast that lasted four to five days. An important feature was the distribution to the guests of great quantities of property and food in the name of the dead.”